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1 (February 2, 2004)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthabbmj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21391 Updated February 2, 2004 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: How Soon an Arsenal? Sharon A. Squassoni Specialist in National Defense Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division Summary In December 2002, North Korea ended the 8-year-old freeze on its nuclear program by expelling inspectors and reopening its plutonium production facilities. The CIA assessed that North Korea could produce 5-6 weapons by mid-2003, to add to the 1 or possibly 2 weapons it might already have. In April 2003, North Korean officials claimed they had completed reprocessing all 8000 spent fuel rods (containing enough plutonium for 5-6 weapons), a claim which few believed. On January 8, 2004, North Korean officials showed an unofficial U.S. delegation an empty spent fuel pond, and some plutonium they claimed that had been reprocessed. However, the delegation could not verify North Korean claims. This report will be updated as warranted. Background In the early1980s, U.S. satellites tracked a growing indigenous nuclear program in North Korea. A small nuclear reactor at Yongbyon (5MWe), capable of producing about 6kg of plutonium per year, began operating in 1986.1 Later that year, U.S. satellites detected high explosives testing and a new plant to separate plutonium (a necessary step before turning the plutonium into metal for a warhead). In addition, the construction of two larger reactors (50MWe at Yongbyon and 200MWe at Taechon) added to the mounting evidence of a serious, clandestine effort. Although North Korea had joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1985, nuclear safeguards inspections began only in 1992. Those inspections raised questions about how much plutonium North Korea had produced covertly that still have not been resolved. In 1994, North Korea pledged, under the Agreed Framework with the United States, to freeze its plutonium programs and eventually dismantle them in exchange for several kinds of assistance.2 At that time, 1 5MWe is a power rating for the reactor, indicating that it produces 5 million watts of electricity per day (very small). Reactors are also described in terms of million watts of heat (MW thermal). 2 See CRS Issue Brief 1B91141, North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program. Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress

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